Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-11-08
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ave several hours to ''lsy over" here, ,
know Of no better way to pass offthe
lime than TO jet down few observss
ions taken on my homeward trip
rom the far west. / believe my last
etter was written from San Diego.
[ left that future great" city on the
night of Oct. Goth, having decided to
shake off the dust and feAs Of Cali
fornia and "strike for home and ma
tive land"
cannot go into the details of the
long and tiresome trip of nearly 5000
miles without growing monotonous,
since there is but little change or
variation from the broad expanse of
sandy desert on the Southern Pacific
road. will therefore only touch
briefly upon the more important
points at which stopped.
The train made very slow head
way and when day broke on Thurs
day morning scarcely hundred
miles had been trsversed. Daylight
found me at Riverside ON the Califor-
MIA Southern road, which is consid-
cred the finest orange growing sec
ton of the State. / could see the
green groves of orange trees from the
window of the car, but no stop was
made until we got to Cotton. Here
occurred delay Of three hours and
it was not until IL 80 that a start
was made for Texas. Cotton is in
my opinion one Of the safest places 10
make investments in California. It
is a place of about 1000 inhabitants,
has two railroads crossing each other
and is backed by the finest of orange
lands and is better supplied with
water than most California towns.
A careful investigation failed to dis
close even the semblance of a "boom"
about the place and the prices asked
for town lots were very reasonable.
The town is level and nicely laid out
and is connected by dummy rail-
way line with San Bernadino, the
county seat of very large county,
which place containing 10000 people
is only 80 miles distant. 1t is not
improbable that these places will
some day grow until they come to-
gether, as there 10 no large city near
sr than about 60 miles. For about
thirty miles after leaving Cotton the
country bore a pleasing appearance,
but after going that distance we sud-
denly passed through range of hills
and found ourselves in the great
southern desert. For 500 miles this
desert lay before us and 1t was not
until we were half way through
New Mexico that the country began
to look like it was fit to live in. The
train which started behind time con-
tinued to lose time and was nearly
seven hours late when the journey TO
Ell Paso ended. On Thursday the
train stopped at Indio, Ariz,, at 8 80
p. NJ, for dinner and the next morn
ing took breakfast at Tucson and
dined at Bowie, in the eastern part
of the Territory. These places and
the town of Yuma at the California
line were the only places passed
in Arizona worth mentioning. There
were other little towns but most of
them consisted of a saloon and a
trading post out on the barren plain,
with a few miserable creatures stand
ing about the depot. One must see
this desert TO have q proper concep-
ton of its sterility. Sometimes for
miles not sign of vegetation would
be seen. The sand would be drifted
into heaps like snow and every now
and then smart breeze would send
1t flying into the car windows that
could not be closed with any degree
of comfort on account of the heat,
which was very oppressive. Again
there would be few scattering sage
bushes, cactus plants or Mexican
amole plants to break the monotony.
The latter is the soap plant, the raw
root of which is used for soap by the
Mexicans and Indians in the sections
where it grows. In the afternoon
of Friday the country began to i'm
prove in appearance and before night
fall we were in the famous cattle
grazing section of Southern New
Mexico. To be sure the prairie did
not come up to the standard Of the
writers of western romance, who pic
ture 1t as q grand expanse of waving
grass as high as q mans waist, but
the grazing appeared to be good and
now and then grass could be seen
that was probably six inches in
height. Darkness threw a sable
mantle over the landscape and shut
out the pleasing vision fifty miles
from Ell Paso, which place was reach
ed at 8 o'clock P. NJ, Friday.
The next day was spent by all of the
passengers in doing Eel Paso and the
town of Paso del Norle across the
river, in Mexico.
Ell Paso is place of perhaps 5000
inhabitants and is rather respecta-
BILE looking town, considering its sur
roundings. About half of the popu-
lation appears to be composed Of
Oreasers. who are about aa renulsiva